


Laundromat @ Midnight

by glofaerie



Series: Unreality [7]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2019-11-06 23:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17948921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glofaerie/pseuds/glofaerie
Summary: Mark/Yukhei





	1. Chapter 1

Mark was tired.

He had hit that specific level of tiredness where it hurt to blink and everything was either way too funny or depressing enough to make him wanna cry. Despite being the most exhausted he'd been since he'd started university, there he was, in a dimly lit 24-hour laundromat, feverishly writing a paper while his clothes tumbled noisily behind him.

He sat with his laptop perched precariously on his knees, bullshitting his way through a closing paragraph. He almost felt like if he stopped writing, he wouldn't be able to start again, so he kept pushing through the fog clouding his brain. At the time, forcing himself to leave his dorm seemed like a good idea. He would get some laundry done and he there was no way he could fall prey to the temptation of his bed, that had been calling out to him all night.

He finished his final sentence with a flourish, and with a quick glance at the time, 11:54, he felt an almost embarrassing sense of relief. He checked over one last time for grammar errors, and halfway through he decided that he really didn't care anymore, so he saved the document and clicked over into a new tab to start uploading it.

The wifi in the laundromat was weak to say the least, and so he sat there, on edge for the full three minutes that it took to finally upload. As soon as the upload was confirmed he closed his laptop with a deep sigh and leaned forward to put his head in his hands.

A few years ago being up at midnight would have been a breeze for Mark, but seeing as he had gotten a grand total of 8 hours of sleep in the past three days, he felt like he had reached the edge and verily jumped off.

Behind him he heard the jingling of the door opening, and his last functioning braincell wondered if it was some type of crazy person come to put him out of his misery. Mark pulled his heavy head out of his hands and glanced over his shoulder to see a stupidly tall, stupidly pretty boy carrying two loaded laundry baskets, one on either arm.

Mark was severely sleep deprived, so he thinks he could be forgiven for the way he let his eyes and mind roam. The newcomer was wearing a black t-shirt with the sleeves cutoff, as well as a look of intense concentration. He didn't seem to notice Mark yet, all of his focus on trying to make sure his ridiculous piles of clothes didn't drop onto the floor. Mark wondered if he noticed that he'd already dropped three items from the pile since he'd walked in.

The stranger finally bumped into the line of washing machines and proceeded to pour the clothes into them until they were full, and then moved on to the next empty machine. By the time he was done he'd used four machines, and he set the baskets down with a sigh of relief. He then reached into one of the seemingly empty baskets and pulled out a bucket of tide pods, tossing two into each machine, before starting them up one after the other, going through almost an entire roll of quarters.

He'd started absentmindedly singing under his breath, his voice low and steady. Mark didn't recognize the song, but he kind of wanted to. The boy, after finally starting his laundry let out a loud noise as he stretched in what looked like an immensely satisfying way. His shirt rode up to expose the very top of his briefs and just a little bit of his toned stomach, and Mark once again cursed his stupid, gay brain for staring.

And of course that was the very moment his phone decided to go off.

The stranger startled and looked over to where Mark was blatantly staring at him, and they sat in silence for a moment, both awkward for different reasons. Mark, too tired to fully process his embarrassment, tucked his head down between his knees. Curled up in a ball like that Mark could almost pretend that he was somewhere else, and that a handsome stranger wouldn't soon be calling him out for his weird staring. He heard footsteps headed towards him and accepted his fate.

"Hey I didn't see you there! Well actually I didn’t expect to see anyone here, I’m Yukhei by the way!" Mark turned his head just enough to see the stranger looming over him. His hair was falling into his face and weak lights were casting some sort of glow around him that Mark immediately wanted to call "ethereal", and in that moment Mark finally understood what his friends meant when they called him a gay disaster. 

“Uh, hi,” Mark finally croaked out, slowly shifting to sit up and maybe regain some semblance of dignity. When his back cracked, loudly, three separate times, he realized that it was a lost cause. But the stranger just laughed, a loud, belly laughed that bounced off the walls and around the inside of Mark’s skull. When he was finished he boisterously sat (how do you even boisterously sit?) in the chair next to Mark, leaving almost no space between them. 

“Hey man, are you okay?” He easily inserted himself into Marks space, one long arm wrapping around his shoulders and his other hand patting Mark on the arm, jostling him a little. 

“Mark, I’m Mark,” he finally managed, moments too late, his brain finally coming back online “And I’m fine, thanks.” 

He thought the universe might cut him some slack after the hell that had been his past few days, but instead of respite, here he was with a big, warm boy draped all over him, smelling like laundry detergent and smiling like Mark was his favorite person in the world. 

“That’s good to hear,” Yukhei says, doing Mark the favor of pretending like he’s not being hopelessly awkward. “What’re you doing out so late?”

Mark was genuinely confused by the attention, because he thought it was a long established uni student etiquette to make grim eye contact with people who were equally tired and worn down, and that singular moment of understanding was the full extent of any interaction but this boy, Yukhei, was watching Mark with big, interested eyes, waiting on Mark’s answer and he didn’t seem to be leaving any time soon. Mark was too tired to resist, and so he settled in for a conversation.

“Yeah you know I was just” he shrugs and gestures vaguely to his clothes taking up two dryers “Working on a paper and decided it was a great time to do some laundry” The delivery was deadpan but Yukhei threw his head back and laughed again, and Mark wondered if he’d suddenly become funny and no one had told him.

By the time Mark’s clothes were finished drying, Yukhei had managed to engage him in almost 20 full minute of conversation, and Mark’s awkwardness had settled down to an almost imperceptible simmer. When the loud buzzer sounded Mark jumped slightly, and when he went to retrieve his clothes he realized how cold it was in the room without Yukhei right next to him. 

With his basket loaded down with fresh dry clothes, Mark turned and almost bumped into Yukhei, who was looming with that smile on his face, the one that made Mark’s face heat up involuntarily. Yukhei set Mark’s laptop on top of the clothes pile and raised an eyebrow.

“See you around?” and Mark wanted to think that he sounded hopeful, but he wouldn’t let his imagination run off like that.

“Uh yeah,,,see you” and Mark walked out of the laundromat with Yukhei helpfully holding the door open for him. He could almost hear Jeno’s voice in his head, yelling at him for not making a move or getting Yukhei’s number or _something_ , but Mark had never been one to put himself out there, and he thought the nice memory of Yukhei would be good enough.

 

When Yukhei said _“See you around”_ , Mark didn’t anticipate seeing him literally everywhere, all the time. Yukhei was taller than most, so spotting him loping across campus was pretty easy. The real mystery was how he managed to zero in on Mark without fail if they were within a 100 yards of each other. Jeno and Donghyuck had taken to teasing him relentlessly. 

There had been one such occasion, when the three of them were sitting under a tree on a sunny day, trying to offset the hours spent in the library. Donghyuck and Mark had their backs against the trunk, while Jeno was sprawled like a starfish in front of them.

“Do you you remember that time that Mark laughed, and Yukhei popped up out of nowhere like thirty seconds later?” Donghyuck managed to tease in between bites of his granola bar. 

Jeno crowed with laughter and rolled over onto his stomach to properly get in on messing with Mark. “I can almost imagine the way his head snapped around before he made his way over.

Hyuck shoved the wrapper of his finished granola bar into his pocket before he turned to Mark with a devilish sparkle in his eye.

“I wonder if we can recreate the results.” was the only warning he gave before he tackled Mark and began tickling him, as Jeno quickly latched onto his flailing legs. 

A moment later when they finally let up, Mark’s face was red, half from laughing, and half from the mortification of his friends making a scene in the middle of campus. 

The blush spread from his cheeks and all the way down his neck when Yukhei appeared moments later, fresh from a McDonald's run. Mark refused to explain why Jeno and Donghyuck kept laughing, but Yukhei gave him his fries anyway, so he figured it wasn’t all bad. 

Yukhei also popped up when he wasn’t with his terrible friends, in the library or in the cafeteria. Mark had even started taking a slightly different path to his last class because he knew it would lead to him running into Yukhei, and he knew that no matter what mood he was in, Yukhei would be able to make him smile, even if only a little bit. 

After days of relentless interactions, Mark thought that he and Yukhei were actually something akin to friends. Now Mark had the presence of mind to crack jokes and make Yukhei laugh on purpose, instead of him amusing himself with Mark’s specific brand awkward. 

The only downside to their blooming friendship was the dread Mark could feel growing in tandem, because he his feelings were straying further away from platonic admiration, and moving dangerously toward a full blown crush. 

He’d thought Yukhei was beautiful from the moment he met him, but now that surface level attraction had taken root in Mark’s heart, and was threatening to bloom into something completely different. 

During a late night study session, while he watched Yukhei pour over his study guide with single minded determination, Mark realized that he had two options. He could create the distance himself, because the way things were going, it was going to hurt a hell of a lot when he fell all the way, and being around the object of his affections was only going to make it worse. His other option was to just let it happen and try his hardest not to let his feelings leak between the two of them, because Yukhei was the best friend that Mark could ask for, even if he made his heart feel like it was made of fragile glass.

Mark was startled out of his revere by a gentle nudging at his calf, and when he looked up, Yukhei was sliding him the other half of his cherry danish, which he must have noticed Mark eyeing. Then he shot Mark a smile which let him know definitively that the first option was never really an option at all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Mark knew it he was under his comforter, face tucked into Yukhei's chest where it was blissfully dark and warm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> final chapter to our (slightly) angsty tale :)

Mark was stressed. Again.

He'd been working tirelessly over the past few days collecting sources and quotes for his paper, and even though it wasn't due for another 2 weeks, the fact that it was going to count for 40 percent of his grade kept the pressure on. He felt strung out and his eyes were grainy, still not recovered from the last round of tests that he had passed only through the power of coffee and all nighters.

He stared blankly at the paper on his screen, only page four out of twenty, and could only take of his glasses before dropping his head into his hands. He felt the telltale pressure from the back of his eyes and wondered if he had the time for the meltdown he could feel sneaking up on him.

Suddenly, a sharp rap came from the door of his room, followed closely by Yukhei's cheery voice.

"Mark!" he shouted, surely loud enough for the whole hall to hear "It's time for our study date!"

Mark had completely forgotten that he invited Yukhei over, as it had probably been in the time between his test and him crashing into bed for twelve consecutive hours. Mark let out a small laugh, but it was strained, and he tried to take a couple of deep breaths before he got up to answer the door.

Yukhei was grinning widely down at Mark when he opened the door, but soon his eyebrows were furrowed with worry at Mark's red-rimmed eyes and disheveled hair.

"Are you okay?" Yukhei asked him, as quiet as he'd ever been, and for some reason that was the final straw, as Mark felt his eyes well up with tears and spill over.

Mark tried to hide his face and slow his breathing, but the sobs were coming harder, and the gentle sound of Yukhei's deep voice trying to soothe him both did and didn't help.

Yukhei dropped his laptop bag on the floor and shut the door before turning off the light and maneuvering Mark towards the bed

"I have to finish my paper" Mark tried to communicate, trying and failing again to get his breathing under control as he stuttered his way through the sentence.

"I know it's fine" Yukhei crooned, and it was the softest Mark had ever heard him speak.

Before Mark knew it he was under his comforter, face tucked into Yukhei's chest where it was blissfully dark and warm. It was so nice that Mark was only a little bit concerned about how he was definitely getting tears on Yukhei's shirt.

Yukhei's hands were big and warm as they rubbed soothing circles on Mark's back, no longer saying anything, while he gave Mark some time to calm down. After a few minutes his sobs died down to the occasional sniffle, even if Mark did still feel like he was shaky.

Before Mark could start to feel awkward, Yukhei spoke up, perfectly timed.

"Where's your roommate?" he asked, voice hushed like he was scared to set Mark off again.

"He usually sleeps at his boyfriend's apartment" Mark managed, voice rough.

"Okay that's good." Yukhei hummed, hands never stopping their movement. One had even found it's way into Mark's hair, massaging at the base of his neck and making Mark realize just how tense he had been.

"So...no work tonight, okay?" Yukhei offers, leaning back so that he can look Mark in the eye, "I'll just order a pizza and we can watch anime, your pick."

And Mark felt the pull of wanting deep in his gut, imagining what always being able to curl up with Yukhei, and to be taken care of like this. He wants so badly he thinks he might start crying again.

Mark knew he should confess to Yukhei. He knew that he would have to eventually, because if he didn't, his feelings would surely overwhelm him.

He knew it with absolute certainty that he was completely head over heels, and the thought was constantly at the back of his mind, even after the pizza came, and even while they sat shoulder to shoulder on his bed and watched _Tokyo Ghoul_. But Mark wanted just one last night with Yukhei close enough that his warmth was bleeding through Mark’s sweatshirt, because once his feelings were out in the open, he doubted he would get any more nights like this.

Yukhei would surely be his usual loud, supportive self, but the idea that he would reciprocate Mark's feelings was almost laughable.

So Mark let himself have one last night, and tried not to feel too guilty when Yukhei cuddled up close to him again before they both fell asleep.

Mark slipped into unconsciousness with his hand gripping the front of Yukhei's shirt, and he didn't dream.

 

The next week came and went and Mark wouldn't say he was avoiding Yukhei, just preparing himself. On the upside he'd blasted through the rest of his paper in record time. On the downside Yukhei was everywhere, and making up excuses of places to be had quickly devolved into putting his head down and power walking around campus, trying his best to prevent any run-in's.

It was Saturday which meant Yukhei was surely at a party (he always invited Mark, but Mark preferred to hear the stories on Monday) and so Mark counted his not-actually-avoiding-Yukhei mission successful for another day.

At least until he rounded the corner to his dorm and found Yukhei standing there, looking very deep in thought and clearly waiting for Mark. Honestly if Yukhei hadn't looked up at that very moment, Mark would have ran back down the stairs and found a cafe to post up in for the next few hours, but as soon as they made eye contact Mark knew there was no choice, and his baseline anxiety skyrocketed, his heartbeat loud in his ears.

"Hey man," Mark tried casually, as he attempted to unlock his door with trembling hands "What are you doing here?"

Yukhei stayed quiet until Mark let them both in, and he closed the door behind them.

Mark felt sick.

Yukhei strolled over to the bed and sat down, still quiet, as Mark fidgeted in the middle of the room, still contemplating an escape attempt. He almost startled when Yukhei finally spoke up.

"Did I do something wrong?" was all he said, looking up at Mark with confusion coloring his clear brown eyes, and Mark realized what a jerk he'd been. Upsetting Yukhei had been the very thing that he had wanted to avoid, and yet here he was, no longer seeing the logic in avoiding someone who, while he was in love with him, was first and foremost one of Mark’s best friends. 

"Yukhei I'm so sorry" Mark started in a rush, and once he'd started talking he felt like he couldn't stop.

"I just, well I wasn't trying to avoid you exactly I just needed some time because I had to tell you that I'm" and Mark could feel the tears coming so he tried to speed up and power through "that I'm in love with you, and I know you wouldn't hate me but I was so worried that you would be uncomfortable and I just didn't want to lose this and so I couldn't tell you but I should have and it was selfish and-"

Mark's rant was interrupted by Yukhei removing his glasses and gently wiping the tears that had started falling at some point.

The tears blurred Mark's vision as he looked up at Yukhei, and he blinked them away as he said "I'm sorry" one last time, feeling better but slightly empty at the emotional outpouring.

Yukhei's smile was like the sun breaking through the clouds as he thumbs away the last few tears from Mark's cheeks.

"I love you too" Yukhei says, standing close enough that Mark could feel the low vibrations of his voice in his chest.

Mark stood dumbstruck, feeling like , mouth slightly agape, causing Yukhei to chuckle.

"I think maybe we can cuddle up and have a nice long conversation about this,” Yukhei started before biting his lip slightly "but could I maybe kiss you first?"

As if Mark could ever say no. As if he would ever want to say no.

Mark nodded slightly, and Yukhei cupped his face, leaning in slowly. When their lips finally met, Mark felt warm and breathless and swept away in all the right ways. He reached up with both hands to clutch at Yukhei's sleeves, and Yukhei just deepened the kiss, one arm wrapping securely around Mark's waist, while his other hand came around to cradle the back of Mark's head.

Mark felt safe and surrounded, the clean scent of Yukhei's laundry detergent drifting up around him.

To say kissing Yukhei felt like coming home felt basic and cliched, but Mark could think of nothing else as he stood there in the circle of his arms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave me a kudos or a comment to let me know what you thought! 
> 
> you can come yell at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/_faerietales) if you wanna :3

**Author's Note:**

> uhhh so its been a while haha. I've had this fic written mostly for a little while but it got so damn long (compared to the rest of the series) I thought this would be a good opportunity to post my first chapter fic??? anyway I hope you enjoy! find me on [ twitter](https://twitter.com/_faerietales) :) 
> 
> Please lemme know what you think!!!


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